The Curt Sachs Award 2008

William Waterhouse

The late William Waterhouse, author of The New Langwill Index of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors,
posthumously received the Curt Sachs Award of the American Musical Instrument Society on May 31, 2008, during the society’s meeting in Calgary, Alberta. Waterhouse, born in London in 1931, died in Florence on November 5, 2007.

Before preparing this fundamental revision of the pioneering work by Lyndesay G. Langwill, Waterhouse served as principal bassoonist in the London Symphony
Orchestra and as co-principal bassoonist in the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was also an important collector of historical bassoons; his collection was documented in The Proud Bassoon, the catalog of an exhibition mounted in 1983 at the Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments.

A committee of AMIS members, headed by Lloyd Farrar, made important contributions to The New Langwill Index,
which was published in London by Tony Bingham in 1993. Waterhouse also wrote articles on the bassoon and related topics in the 1980 and 2001 editions of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as well as Bassoon, a volume in the series of Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides. He published many articles, reviews, translations, and editions of music.

The Curt Sachs Award is given annually for important contributions in the field of organology.